Current Exhibition -

Jeffrey Palladini and Paul Metivier

April 2nd – May 3rd, 2009

Opening Reception:  Thursday, April 2nd, 6-8pm

Gallery IMA is pleased to announce a two-man show featuring paintings by Jeffrey Palladini and sculpture by local artist Paul Metivier.

          
Jeffrey Palladini, Movie Kiss #6, Oil and Charcoal on Wood, 41” x 61”    

Click here for an interactive catalogue of Jeffrey's work from this show!

An Endless Succession of Moments
Painter Jeffrey Palladini captures snapshot flashes of intimacy – of quiet contemplations, flares of passion, of lonely defeats and frustrations. Palladini works primarily with oil and charcoal on wood. Swirls of broad brushstrokes and brief exposures of wood traverse Palladini’s scenes, like physical manifestations of his figures’ jumble of thoughts and emotions.  These figures do not acknowledge us but rather partially obscure their faces, tempting us to project our own stories, to inform their ambiguousness.  In Palladini’s own poetic prose, “From a movie still is extrapolated a full film of character, pacing, plot and script -- from a paragraph an entire novel, from a brief encounter a lifetime of histories and potentialities.  From a single windowpane spreads a wide, complicated landscape.  From one charged moment, the story extends infinitely in all directions.”

Jeffrey was born in the Chicago area, and grew up in Southern California where he enrolled in the
Art program at California State University followed by a transformative period of study in Florence, Italy. The artist currently works out of the San Francisco Bay Area and has enjoyed exhibitions across the country.

Paul Metivier, Figurehead #3, Earthenware with stain, 23” x 8” x 8”

New Works
The organic development of Paul Metivier’s sculpture compliments the earthiness of his materials.  Starting with a vague idea of a body or head in mind, the Seattle-based artist works and re-works his clay to “invite change to take place” and allow the piece to gradually realize its own form.  He takes his cues from the unreliability of memory and intuition, recognizing parts and being surprised by others as they emerge under his ministrations.  Even after firing, the work continues to evolve as Metivier then reacts to it with paint, stain, various mark-making devices, and, finally, a title.  The resulting sculptures are portraits, specific in character, attitude and personality, full of peculiarities, charms, and the life breathed into them by a master crafstman.

Paul Metivier graduated from the art program at California State University, Long Beach and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics from the University of Washington in Seattle.  He has since shown his work in exhibitions both nationally and abroad.